Loving The Paso Fino Horse Gait

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Because I love horses, I really like horses that give me a great ride. When I first discovered the Paso Fino, it made a huge difference in my concept of a good riding horse. A Paso trail ride can be only compared to floating on cloud 9 in my opinion. One of the reasons is the Paso's natural gait.

In case you don't know, a horse's gait is the way that it moves. In determining a horse's gait, you look at the pattern, speed, positions, and the sequence of steps that a horse takes while it is moving. The Paso Fino is special in the fact that it has a unique pattern of foot movements that give it a very smooth ride. You won't see this horse bounding its rider up-and-down as it moves.

You can hear the individual hooves in Paso's 1-2-3-4 gait as the horse moves. It kind of reminds me of the riderless horse that rides at the funerals of presidents when they die. Granted it is different, but in my mind it has a stately feel to it. When riding a Paso Fino horse, it almost makes me feel like royalty.

Called an "ambling" gait, the Paso's gait is a intermediate gait that is faster than a walk but slower than a canter. As its feet move, you will notice they move in what is called a "lateral" movement where the front and back feet move in sequence to one another.

In the Paso Fino gait, there are essentially three speeds to its gait. From slowest to fastest, there is the paso fino, paso corto, and paso largo. There is also another one called the Paso Llano and is found in the Peruvian Paso.

There are many competitions that display the wonderful gait honed in performance Paso Fino training. If you've never seen it before, be sure to get on Youtube and search for "Paso Fino." You will see many examples of the championship quality gaits of these horses. To many, the gait looks like a well orchestrated hat dance by the horse... and I guess you could say that is true. All I can say is simply amazing.

Even if you're not looking to get started with a performance Paso Fino and just need a good riding horse, the Paso Fino makes an excellent horse to own. If you like to go on trial rides, you can't beat the beautifully smooth and steady horse gait of this horse breed.